Nadal's dominance on clay ends in 2013

When Nadal is aggressive he tends to hit errors, when he is not aggressive, Djokovic steps in and plays the angles, making Nadal defend a bigger court. Either way, Djokovic seems to have the advantage, notwithstanding last year's slump.

Peak clay was at RG 2008 only. He was anything but peak in the masters leading up to RG 2008. He was far more successful in 2010 in the buildup to RG than 2008.

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It is in the way you play more than what you win, though this is obviously important as well.

Besides the blisters thing which made him lose in Rome against JCF, Nadal really looked nigh unbeatable in the 2008 clay season. And he took that confidence to grass and even HC for the remainder of the season.

I, like other Nadal fans, say peak because he was at his peak physically(was literally everywhere on court and he was rarely tired) and maybe even mentally. He escaped several times during that year in tight matches(Queens 2008 against Djoko, WB 2008 against Fed, in Olympics against Djoko) and he looked most improved(made his first HC GS SF that year). As he progressed through other surfaces, he did lose a bit of his clay edge though, that's my impression anyway.

The other clay iterations of Nadal are still impressive because he's in the very top echelon of CC'ers historically but I enjoyed the 2008 version the most. I could've easily gone for the 2010 version(clay sweep) or 2012 version(beats Djokovic in 3 clay meetings including RG) for better stories but in pure play level it is 2008 for me.

I think this win was more crucial for Djoko than for Nadal. After all 8 consecutive is a record that's not close to get broken. Nadal has already won 2 events on clay this season and he's already won a master. Nadal has also won tons of events on clay throughout his career. For this reason, this must have felt a bit like a case of "one more, one less" despite the disappointment. His main goal at this stage is to peak for RG and be the only player to win a slam 8 times. He still has time to get ready for that.
On the other hand, Djoko was hungry for his 1st master title this season and was eager to demonstrate that his success over Rafa in 2011 was not a freak accident or a parenthesis but something more significant. Djoko needed that boost of confidence. He's now the player with the most success vs Rafa, the only one to have beaten him 3 times on clay. He needed that to get some momentum on clay going imo.

I think this win was more crucial for Djoko than for Nadal. After all 8 consecutive is a record that's not close to get broken. Nadal has already won 2 events on clay this season and he's already won a master. Nadal has also won tons of events on clay throughout his career. For this reason, this must have felt a bit like a case of "one more, one less" despite the disappointment. His main goal at this stage is to peak for RG and be the only player to win a slam 8 times. He still has time to get ready for that.
On the other hand, Djoko was hungry for his 1st master title this season and was eager to demonstrate that his success over Rafa in 2011 was not a freak accident or a parenthesis but something more significant. Djoko needed that boost of confidence. He's now the player with the most success vs Rafa, the only one to have beaten him 3 times on clay. He needed that to get some momentum on clay going imo.

I used to play Chess while in the colllege and once I started working, am a software engineer working in TCS, I gave up on that. Anand is a celebrity here. However, I was not aware about what you told me. To be honest, Indian people don't care about anything other than Cricket. Of course everyone knows about Anand's achievements, but that's about it

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Hmm, fair enough. Chess is kind of underground despite being played actively by millions. The Indian public are going care more about it though come November. To host a WC match is a pretty big deal.